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Thursday, November 6, 2014

Pro Or Con

I think that today, due to the
election and the passing of measure 91 in Oregon, we are going to talk about
smoking pot. If you are in the minority and have never tried the pot ignore
this next question. When was the first time you smoked pot, and what was your
first time like? There are a lot of opinions around the legalization of cannabis
in the states and what it will do to our society. In all honesty I think that
the legalization of pot is a good thing. Most if not all of the criminality I
have witnessed around pot had to do with the fact of it being illegal in the
first place to possess and or consume Marijuana. That may sound like a no shit
kind of statement but if you think about it it is not. The consumption of pot
is a relatively cheap pursuit so you don’t see nearly as much criminality in
the getting of it. And as far as the addiction generating properties of pot you
have a greater chance to become addicted to your morning cup of coffee or that
extra Danish at noon. Now don’t get me wrong I am not advocating the use of pot
I am just covering the bases. Pot can be addictive but so can any habitual act.
As with any potential habit forming substance there is a portion of society
that will have negative interaction with this substance. There has been a lot
of study of the pot subculture while it was illegal’ but very little study of
it’s impact while legal, so I will be using an educated guess as to what the
impact of it’s legalization really is. There
is so much to cover on this subject that I cannot cover it in it’s entirety. I
believe that initially there will be a spike in consumption of pot with it’s
legalization but that it will level off with time, and maybe even decrease. I
think that the medicinal usage will increase with open study of the benefits,
it could even replace opiates in the reduction of chronic pain. With the
legalization of marijuana, and the taxation of said substance, the flood gates
of funding for research will open up and I believe the studies that will come
about as the result will benefit our society. Also I believe that there will be
a significant decrease in pot related crimes once the populous gets used to the
new laws concerning the use, possession, and distribution of pot related
products. That being said I also believe that at first there will be an initial
spike in the need for addiction related services and there will be an increase initially
of crime around the sales of cannabis. Now onto the story.

I had been hearing
my brother talk about smoking pot in the fields where he was working and I was
curious about it. I asked him to buy me a joint so I could try it…I was twelve
almost thirteen at the time. He took my three dollars and went to work. When he
got home he gave me back the three dollars ant told me that the guy just gave
him a bud for me to try. The bud was about three inches long, an inch and a
half wide, and about a quarter inch thick, it had red hair like growths all over
it and smelled like mandarin oranges. I took the bud and said thanks. Not being
sure how much to consume I took about a third of the bud and crunched it up
then mixed it with some tobacco to role a joint. That night I took the “joint”
and went outside to smoke it. It was harsher than just plane tobacco and had a
unique flavor. It didn't take me long to smoke the whole thing. At first
nothing happened and I wondered if I had done it right. I went straight to my
room and laid down before it hit me. The first thing I noticed was the feeling
in my back like a series of waves crashing onto me, then my heat started
drumming in my chest. It scared me how strong the feelings were. After a while,
maybe a half hour I started seeing things, at first it was just out of the
corner of my eye, then I saw, straight on, a clown form up from the shadows and
it tried to throw something at me. At that point I covered myself with my
blankets and hid. It took quite a while of this feeling that way before I fell
asleep. The next day I felt none the worse for wear and I laughed off the
effects the pot had had and told myself that it couldn't have been that way that
it was just my imagination. What I didn’t know was that the pot my brother had
got for me was laced with crystal meth and PCP. What he and I thought was just
pot was actually a high powered drug cocktail. I finished what I had the next
night and had one of the worst experiences of my life. After that night I swore
off pot for life, but that only lasted for about six months. When I smoked
again after the six months it was a totally different experience. I laughed,
got squinty blood shot eyes, and got the munchies.

All in all the later experience
with pot was awesome. It was similar to the first time I got really drunk (also
with my older brother) and I remember thinking that my parents were wrong or liars,
and that pot couldn't be bad for you. I never thought that way about alcohol. I
am a recovering alcoholic and drug addict and these experiences aren’t anything
I would want for my juvenile son…but when He becomes an adult if he chooses to
smoke pot I won’t hold it against him, and I will never lump Pot into the same category
as the hard drugs like heroin, cocaine, or meth. There is a huge difference in
the drugs that pot has been lumped with. I cannot smoke pot and have a successful
life but I have had enough experience with it to say that I believe that the
legalization of regulated pot will be a benefit to our society in the long run.

I wish we had medical mj here in the South. I firmly believe that big pharmaceutical companies hate mj because you can grow it in your backyard. I would use medical marijuana over any narcotic or pain pill, but I doubt it'll pass here in the South in my lifetime, sadly. We smoked it in the early 70's and it was a very mellow, peaceful experience. I think the federal government should legalize small amounts, or a few plants for personal use. xo